Connecticut ends town exemptions for new coastal single-family homes and requires state referral in flood zones

Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 22a-109, as amended by Sections 5 and 6 of Public Act 25-33 (Substitute Senate Bill 9), signed June 10, 2025 and effective October 1, 2025, a municipal zoning commission may no longer exempt construction of an individual single-family residential structure from coastal site plan review, and every coastal site plan for an activity proposed within a FEMA-designated V, VE, A, AE or Limit of Moderate Wave Action ("LiMWA") area, or for a site containing tidal wetlands, beaches or dunes, must be referred to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection ("DEEP") for comment. The first change brings into review a category of residential construction that the statute previously allowed towns to exempt. The second extends a state comment period to local applications that were not previously referred. A 2026 bill concerning coastal site plan reviews for certain single-family structures, House Bill 5290, was referred to the Planning and Development Committee in February 2026; its bill history records no action after the notice of a February 27 hearing, and the regular session adjourned on May 6, 2026 without its passage.

Background

The Coastal Management Act assigns the first coastal judgment on most private projects to municipal boards. Within the coastal boundary, which under § 22a-94(b) runs to the farthest inland of the interior contour of the one-hundred-year coastal flood zone or a one-thousand-foot setback from mean high water or from the inland boundary of tidal wetlands, § 22a-105(b) treats as "coastal site plans" site plans under § 22a-109, subdivision and resubdivision plans, special permit and special exception applications, variance applications to the zoning board of appeals and referrals of municipal projects under § 8-24.

A coastal site plan must show the coastal resources on and contiguous to the site, describe the project, assess the resources' capability to accommodate it and its suitability for the site, and evaluate its beneficial and adverse impacts and proposed mitigation (§ 22a-105(c)). Under § 22a-106, the applicant must demonstrate that adverse impacts on coastal resources and on future water-dependent development activities are acceptable and that the activity is consistent with the goals and policies of § 22a-92, and the board must state its findings and reasons in writing.

What changed

The most consequential change for day-to-day practice is the removal of former § 22a-109(b)(4). That subdivision had allowed a zoning commission to exempt construction of an individual single-family residential structure, except on an island without a road connection to the mainland or within one hundred feet of tidal wetlands, coastal bluffs and escarpments, or beaches and dunes. The remaining exemptions, now numbered (1) to (6), still cover minor additions to or modifications of existing buildings, structures incidental to residential property such as walks, elevated decks, driveways, pools and docks, minor on-premise structures, conservation activities, interior modifications and certain minor changes in use. Section 22a-105(e) continues to provide that the chapter does not prevent reconstruction of a building after a casualty loss.

The second change concerns referral. Before October 1, 2025, § 22a-109(d) required referral to DEEP only of coastal site plans for shoreline flood and erosion control structures. It now also reaches any activity in the listed FEMA zones and any site with tidal wetlands, beaches or dunes. The plan must be referred within fifteen days of receipt, DEEP's comments are due within thirty-five days, and the zoning commission or zoning board of appeals must consider them before final action. If DEEP does not comment within that period or any extension, the board may act, and DEEP's silence is neither approval nor disapproval.

Section 16 of Public Act 25-33 also amends § 8-2, effective October 1, 2027, to require zoning regulations to provide for mitigating and avoiding potential negative impacts from sea level change, in consideration of the most recent sea level change scenario.

Practical effects

Builders and owners planning a new single-family house within the coastal boundary, and the architects, engineers and land use counsel preparing their applications, are most directly affected. A house that a town previously exempted may now require a coastal site plan with the § 22a-105(c) resource assessment, written findings under § 22a-106 and, in the listed flood zones, the DEEP referral. Local zoning regulations adopted under the former exemption may not yet reflect the amendment, so the regulation text alone may not show whether review applies.

Commercial and multifamily applicants were generally already subject to coastal site plan review, but their plans are now also referred to DEEP where the site lies in a listed FEMA zone or contains tidal wetlands, beaches or dunes. Purchase and sale agreements for coastal lots, construction contracts and construction loans that condition performance on zoning approval or fix an approval date should be checked against the additional review step and the thirty-five-day comment window.

What to do and when

The amendments have applied since October 1, 2025, and the § 8-2 sea level change requirement takes effect on October 1, 2027. The prudent course is to confirm early whether a site lies within the coastal boundary and in a V, VE, A, AE or LiMWA area or contains tidal wetlands, beaches or dunes; to prepare the coastal site plan to the § 22a-105(c) standard from the outset; to address the § 22a-92 policies and any water-dependent use issues expressly; and to build the DEEP referral and comment period into the application schedule.